THE TRUE STORY OF THE FAMOUS PATTON PRAYER

This account of the famous Christmas prayer by Gen. George S. Patton Jr.
during the terrible Battle of the Bulge in World War II is excerpted from the
book, Pattons Oracle; Gen. Oscar Koch, as I Knew Him, by Robert Hays
(Lucidus Books, 2013). All rights reserved.

As I sat at the dining room table in the Koch house one cold November
afternoon, taking notes on material from some of the generals files, he
suddenly stood and, without saying anything, left the room. He was gone
for a few minutes and when he returned he said casually, Here, I have
something for you. He handed me a small card with a Christmas greeting
from Patton printed on one side and a prayer for good weather printed on
the other.
I value this little card today not only because of its inherent quality as an
historic artifact of World War II, but also because it was a gift from the
general. I know that the prayer card was important to him, too, and always
assumed that he didnt give me his last one. There was no way to know.
A quarter-million of these cards were distributed to the soldiers of the U.S.
Third Army in December 1944, shortly before the beginning of the Battle
of the Bulge. The prayer for good weather became known, appropriately, as
the Patton Prayer.
I decided to make use of the story of the prayer to bring credit to General
Koch for his exceptional intelligence work preceding the Bulge. The timing
of events made for an easy connection. On December 8, Patton called on
the Third Army chaplain, Colonel James H. ONeill, to write a prayer for
good weather. The following day, Koch briefed his commander and the rest
of the staff on the enemy buildup in the Ardennes and warned of the danger
of a German counterattack. The attack came a week later.
I combined the two story linesthe Patton Prayer and Kochs superb
intelligence work during that periodinto a single newspaper feature

article that has been published multiple times. It was first published in 1967
and most recently in 2011. Because it deals with historical fact, the piece
has hardly changed over the years. For religious publications, I wrote a
version titled The Miracle of Bastogne.
General Koch had always told me that Patton was deeply religious.
Chaplain ONeill substantiated this view. Writing four years later about his
meeting with Patton that day, he recalled that the commander expressed a
strong belief in the power of prayer. He said Patton asked not only for a
weather prayer, but also for a training letter on the importance of prayer to
be sent to all the Third Army chaplains and unit commanders down to
battalion level.
The chaplain wrote that Patton told him, Weve got to get not only the
chaplains but every man in the Third Army to pray. We must ask God to
stop these rains.
On December 11 and 12, more than three thousand copies of the chaplains
Training Letter No. 5 were distributed. It advised that, This Army needs
the assurance and the faith that God is with us. With prayer, we cannot
fail. In case there was any doubt, ONeill added his pledge that the letter
had the approval, the encouragement, and the enthusiastic support of the
Third United States Army Commander. The prayer for good weather,
printed on the back of the card that carried Pattons Christmas greetings to
the troops, also was distributed at this time.
The prayer was supposed to be in the hands of every Third Army soldier by
December 14. The text of the prayer reads:
Almighty and merciful Father, we humbly beseech
Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these
immoderate rains with which we have had to
contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle.
Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon
Thee that armed with Thy power, we may advance
from victory to victory, and crush the oppression

and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy

justice among men and nations. Amen.
Chaplain ONeill sent a signed copy of his remarks, published in the
journal, The Military Chaplain, to Oscar Koch. He concluded that the
prayer fit precisely into Pattons formula for success. In that meeting on
December 8, Patton claimed that the prayers of people back home were a
significant reason for Third Armys achievements. Patton said that success
comes through planning, working, and praying and, Any great military
operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have welltrained troops to carry it out. Thats working. But there always is an
unknown and that unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure.
He said, Some people call that getting the breaks, I call it God. . . . Thats
where prayer comes in.
So far as ONeill was concerned, the Patton Prayer merely enhanced
Pattons reputation as one of Americas greatest soldiers. He had all the
traits of military leadership, ONeill wrote, fortified by genuine trust in
God, intense love of country, and high faith in the American soldier.
These were descriptive terms Oscar Koch agreed with.
When I wrote about the Patton Prayer, I went on to pose the question of
whether the German advance might not have been prevented. I detailed
Kochs briefing to Patton and other staff members at Third Army
headquarters on December 9, and concluded:
The question remains, though, whether the tragic
American losses in the Bulge might have been
prevented. Kochs intelligence reports had
accurately judged the enemy capabilities and
predicted the coming course of events. Had
Bradley and Eisenhower taken the precautionary
steps that Patton took, the Allies could have been
waiting and sprung a trap that ended the German
thrust before it began.

General Koch appeared to be grateful for the article, especially my efforts

to include the story of his pre-Bulge intelligence work. Even without this
added feature, though, I think he would have appreciated any effort to
portray the Patton Prayer story accurately.
In 1947, True magazine had published a fictional version of the prayer
which had gained some credence as being authentic. Even the Fourth
Armored Association newsletter, Rolling Together, in its 1965 Christmas
issue, reprinted it under the heading, The following is General George S.
Pattons famous, miracle-working prayer, delivered just before Christmas
during the dark days of the Battle of the Bulge.
This fictitious prayer still surfaces from time to time. It begins, Sir, this is
Patton talking. The last fourteen days have been straight hell . . . Im
beginning to wonder whats going on in your Headquarters. Whose side are
You on, anyway.
Robert S. Allen sent General Koch a copy of the Rolling Together
newsletter that contained the reprint. On the facing page he scrawled, The
legends grow and grow and grow. The general agreed that any effort to
convert such legend to fact was a worthy undertaking.